The Toy Box, September 13-19, 2004

The Toy Box

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Mexican Independence Day

Mexicanos, Viva Mexico

The Mexican Independence Day is a major holiday in Mexico, the celebration begins every September 15th at 11 pm in every single city and town in Mexico. On the night of September 15, 1910, the grito de independencia, the "cry of independence" began at dawn on Sunday, September 1810. http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/grito.html (Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla,) a fifty-seven-year-old priest from an old family of criollos (Mexican-born Spaniards) had suddenly begun to harangue his parishioners in the small town of Dolores in the state of Guanajuato, "seducing them" (according to a chronicle of the time) to rise up in arms - even with stones, slings, sticks or spears - in order to defend their religion against the "French heretics" who had occupied Spain since 1808 and now threatened to come over to the Americas.
According to witnesses present at the original event, Hidalgo and then his followers had shouted "�Mueran los gachupines! Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!" ("Death to the Spaniards! Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe!"), but after one hundred years, time, good manners, and secularization had transformed the ritual from the call for a holy war, to a peaceful, patriotic affirmation.
Revolutionary War whose significance transcends time. The original insurgents proclaimed that the Revolt was to protect the Kingdom from the French and that all was being carried out in the name of Ferdinand VII. The fear of the French and the good name of Ferdinand were successful devices for arousing popular enthusiasm.
After the last "Viva M�xico" is cried, the President Vicente Fox wil wave the flag, ring the bell, and the National Anthem will be sung. There will be a civic ceremony, and a military parade.

The actual day of September 16 is similar to Fourth of July in the United States. There are rodeos, parades, bullfights and horseback rider performances. The people feast and recall Hidalgo's speeches. There are statues in memory of Father Hidalgo and people decorate them with flowers.

In cities, like East LA, with large Mexican communities outside of Mexico, the Mexican Consul does the traditional "Grito". The show usually features traditional Mexican dances, singers, a rock group formed by Mexican students and of course, the "mariachis."

We join Mexico and Mexicans all around the world on this very special day. "Mexicanos, Viva Mexico!"

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